Self-erecting pod

ABSTRACT

A self-erecting pod has an elongated body with at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body adjacent one end thereof and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position. Springs cause relative pivoting between the legs and the body when the legs are released from the stowed position. Advantageously the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs and the springs are tightly coiled ribbon springs with each leg having one such spring secured at one end to the leg adjacent its pivot and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body.

Hardiman et al.

v[ Mar. 11,1975

[ SELF-ERECTING POD [75] Inventors: Russell J. Hardiman, Sellersville;Primary Paul Leigh David Leiter, willow Grove; AssistantExaminer-Kenneth J. Dorner Howard Vane Doylestown! a of Attorney, Agent,or FzrmSmith, Harding, Earley & Follmer [73] Assignee: Ametek, Inc., NewYork, NY. [57] ABSTRACT [22] Med: 1973 A self-erecting pod has anelongated body with at least 21 APPL 40 ,271 three substantially equallyspaced legs pivoted to the body adjacent one end thereof and extendingtowards the other end of the body in their stowed position. {52] US. Cl.i. 248/168, 16/180 Springs cause relative pivoting between the legs and[51] hit. Cl. F16! 11/38 the body when the g are released from thestowed [58] new of Search Mag/I68 171; position. Advantageously the bodyhas recesses for the 267/156 16/180 102/4 244/158; 9/9 stowage of thelegs and the springs are tightly coiled ribbon springs with each leghaving one such spring [56] References cued secured at one end to theleg adjacent its pivot and the UN S ES TENTS remainder of the springextending in the uncoiled con- 1,610,534 12/1926 Rice 248/170 on etw n hl g and the body.

2.398 794 4/1946 Maltby 102/[3 2,895.77) 7/1959 Bender 267/156 3 Clams12 D'awmg Fgures Y. I I 1 i 1 l i I s 1 l i 36LL 3 3 VZOI l i l6 l 7 7//I\\\\\ V "V "1 e W A W ';I v \V/KWW/ \ZI/ SELF-ERECTING POD BACKGROUNDOF THE INVENTION There is a need for devices positioned in remotelocations by various types of remotely controlled delivery systems. Forexample, it is known to use projectiles and parachutes to dropinstruments in remote locations. Some instruments are simply droppedfrom aircraft or from fast moving land vehicles. The orientation of theinstrument carrying pod is frequently a problem, particularly where theinstrument involves an antenna associated with a radio transmitter orreceiver. For example, if the pod is oriented so that a carried whipantenna is lying close and parallel to the ground, the effectiveness ofthe antenna may be very greatly reduced or eliminated. In accordancewith this invention the pod is provided with means to erect the pod to apreferred position, for example, a substantially upright position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The self-erecting pod has an elongated bodywith at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to thebody adjacent one end thereof and extending towards the other endthereof in their stowed position. Spring means cause relative pivotingbetween the legs and the body to erect the pod. Each leg is pivoted onerection to lie with its outer end in or below a plane passing throughthe adjacent end of the body and which is perpendicular to the axis ofthe body. Advantageously each leg will intersect said plane at an angleof from about to about 40. Means are provided to releaseably retain thelegs in the stowed position. Advantageously, the body has recesses forthe stowage of the legs and the spring means comprises in each leg atightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured to the legs adjacentthe pivot and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiledcondition between the leg and the body. Alternatively, a spring may besecured to the body opposite each leg and adjacent the pivot point ofthe leg and similarly extended to lie between the body and the leg.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevation of aself-erecting pod in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section, partially broken away, taken on the plane indicatedby the line 33 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1, partiallybroken away, showing the erection of a leg in the early stages;

FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the leg of FIG. 4 in a later stage oferection;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1 in thefully erected position;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the pod of FIG. 6 taken on the planeindicated by the line 7-7 in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a horizontal section taken on the planes indicated by the line88 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is an elevational view, partially broken away, of a leg of thepod of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10, 11 and 12 respectively are essentially schematic viewsillustrating the self-erecting pod of the invention in various stages oferection.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION A self-erecting pod 2 inaccordance with the invention has a hollow elongated cylindrical body 4with dome shaped ends 6 and 8 ..The dome shape for end 6 is advantageousin order to make the pod unstable with the end 6 facing the ground. Thedome shape for end 8 is desirable to streamline the pod to avertsnagging in brush. End 6 has a separate access section 10 which issecured, for example, by welding as indicated at 12.

A plurality of legs 16 U-shaped in cross-section are each pivotallysecured to ears l8 integral with body 4 by pins 20, body 4 being cutaway as indicated at 22 and 24 to permit access to pins 20. Each leg 16is received in a slot 28 in body 4 and extending in the direction of thelength thereof. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the upper end 30 and the lowerend 32 of each leg 16 is curved to conform to the outer surface of body4 when in the stowed position within slot 28. Y

A tightly coiled spring 36 is mounted on each leg 16. Each spring 36 hasa ribbon 38 of spring material with adjacent turns set to coil tightlyupon each other as taught in US. Pat. No. 2,609,192 which isincorporated herein by reference. The outer end of ribbon 38 is securedto the inner portion of arm 16 adjacent pin 20 by two rivets indicatedat 40, 40 (FIG. 9). As best seen in FIG. 3, ribbon 38 is unwound alongthe length of arm 16 until substantially fully extended to permit arm 16to be pivoted to the stowage position. The arms 16 are retained in thestowage position within slots 28 by means of flexible steel cable 46having eyes 50 and 52 at its ends.

Cable 46 extends about the outer periphery of body 4 and through afaired opening 48 into the interior of body 4. Eyes 50 and 52 arealigned and receive a retractable retaining pin 54 which passes througha stripper plate 53 above the eye 50. Pin 54 is connected to anexplosive-actuated retractable actuator 56 of the bridge resistance typewhich is readily available from a number of manufacturers. The 228-20000retractable actuator available from Atlas Aerospace Division of ICIAmerica Inc. (Data Sheet 131, September 1972) is satisfactory.'Theresistance bridge (not-shown) of actuator 56 is connected to a-batteryindicated at 58 by line 60 and also through line 62, explosive activatedtime delay switch 63 of the bridge resistance type, line 65, inertiaswitch 64 and line 66. The resistance bridge (not shown) of switch 63 isconnected to line 60 by line 63A and to line 65. Satisfactory explosivetime delay switches are readily available, for example, said AtlasAerospace Division type MS (Data Sheet 011 of September 1972). Inertiaswitch 64 may be any of a wide variety of impact actuated switches suchas, for example, omnidirectional inertia switch model 3RO-434 made byInertia Switch Incorporated of 31 1 West 43rd Street, New York 36, NewYork. The time delay switch 63 insures that the pod has come to restbefore the legs start to pivot.

Section 10 of dome end 6 is not secured in position until all of thelegs 16 with their respective springs 36 in the extended position havebeen placed in the stowed position within their respective slots 28where they may be held initially by a simple cord (not shown) tiedaround body 4. Cable 46 is then passed about body 4 with eyes 50 and 52passing through opening 48. Pin 54 is then inserted through eyes 50 and52 and the actuator 56 secured to the interior of body 4 as indicated at57. Actuator 56 is then wired to battery 58 and switch 64 is wired tobattery 58. Section is then secured in position and welded as indicatedat 12.

OPERATION In operation the self-erecting pod 2 is discharged from, forexample, a low flying aircraft or from a land vehicle and falls to theground where the elongated shape of body 4 and dome ends 8 and 10 causeit to topple onto its side. On impacting the ground, switch 64 isactuated by the impact and provides a flow of current from battery 58 totime delay switch 62 which after, for example, a six second delay,closes to supply a flow of current to actuator 56. The explosion of thecharge within actuator 56 withdraws pin 54 from eyes 50 and 52 torelease cable 46. Springs 36 now coil up between arms 16 and body 4causing relative pivoting between each arm 16 and body 4. Two of thearms 16 will contact the ground and will, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11,cause body 4 to be rotated generally clockwise about the end adjacentpins 20 until the other two arms 16, which have pivoted fully withrespect to body 4, come into contact with the ground. The action of thesprings 36 of the first two arms will then result in the completion ofthe erection of the body 4 into a substantially upright position.

It will be appreciated that the above described embodiment isillustrative and is not intended to be limit- We claim:

1. A self-erecting pod comprising:

an elongated body,

at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the bodyclosely adjacent one end of the body and extending towards the other endof the body in their stowed position,

spring means to erect the pod with said one end nearer the ground from asubstantially prone posi tion by reacting against at least one armsupported by the ground to pivot the body relative to the groundsupported arms and to pivot the remaining arms relative to the body totheir supporting positions, said spring means comprising in each leg atightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured adjacent the pivotof the leg and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiledcondition between the leg and the body, and

means to releasably retain said legs in the stowed position, saidretaining means including means actuated on impact with the ground torelease said retaining means to free the legs for pivoting and erectionof the pod on the ground.

2. A self-erecting pod in accordance with claim 1 in which the body hasrecesses for the stowage of the legs. 3. A device in accordance withclaim 1 in which the impact actuated means includes time delay means todelay the release of the legs for pivoting.

1. A self-erecting pod comprising: an elongated body, at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body closely adjacent one end of the body and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position, spring means to erect the pod with said one end nearer the ground from a substantially prone position by reacting against at least one arm supported by the ground to pivot the body relative to the ground supported arms and to pivot the remaining arms relative to the body to their supporting positions, said spring means comprising in each leg a tightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured adjacent the pivot of the leg and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body, and means to releasably retain said legs in the stowed position, said retaining means including means actuated on impact with the ground to release said retaining means to free the legs for pivoting and erection of the pod on the ground.
 1. A self-erecting pod comprising: an elongated body, at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body closely adjacent one end of the body and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position, spring means to erect the pod with said one end nearer the ground from a substantially prone position by reacting against at least one arm supported by the ground to pivot the body relative to the ground supported arms and to pivot the remaining arms relative to the body to their supporting positions, said spring means comprising in each leg a tightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured adjacent the pivot of the leg and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body, and means to releasably retain said legs in the stowed position, said retaining means including means actuated on impact with the ground to release said retaining means to free the legs for pivoting and erection of the pod on the ground.
 2. A self-erecting pod in accordance with claim 1 in which the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs. 